Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Moving Beyond the Image: Theorising 'Extreme' Female Bodies

Hockin-Boyers, H.; Jamie, K.; Pope, S.

Moving Beyond the Image: Theorising 'Extreme' Female Bodies Thumbnail


Authors



Abstract

Since their entry onto the competitive scene in 1977, female bodybuilders have been the subject of sustained debate among scholars from a range of disciplines. Within this body of literature, discourses are polarised and offer two opposing representations of the female bodybuilder; one of resistance and one of compliance. This bifurcation of discourse, we argue, is symptomatic of a more general occularcentric tradition within theorising on ‘extreme’ or transgressive female bodies. In this article, we unpack these disparate perspectives and by drawing on research relating to anorexia and fat studies we advocate for an alternative theoretical space, premised on the affectual relationality/co-constitution of materiality and representation, from which to approach female bodybuilding as a corporeal practice. Moreover, we propose that by developing an interdisciplinary approach to female corporeality (muscularity, thinness, fatness etc.), we can dismantle unproductive and ontologically redundant divisions which segregate and silo feminist writing on embodiment.

Citation

Hockin-Boyers, H., Jamie, K., & Pope, S. (2020). Moving Beyond the Image: Theorising 'Extreme' Female Bodies. Women's Studies International Forum, 83, Article 102416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2020.102416

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2020
Online Publication Date Sep 11, 2020
Publication Date 2020-11
Deposit Date Sep 9, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Women's Studies International Forum
Print ISSN 0277-5395
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 83
Article Number 102416
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2020.102416

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations